


Getting Dressed

by Fericita



Series: Vanished [2]
Category: Frozen (Disney Movies)
Genre: Amnesia AU, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:34:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27008923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fericita/pseuds/Fericita
Summary: Agnarr helps Iduna get dressed - before and during.Thank you @the-spaztic-fantastic for brainstorming this into existence with me, for offering input on how to make it sexier and more fraught with emotion, and for  encouraging me to add a pinky-fingered, adept-at-women’s-clothing Agnarr to our growing character list.
Relationships: Agnarr/Iduna (Disney)
Series: Vanished [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1971163
Comments: 6
Kudos: 8





	Getting Dressed

“We’re smart. We can figure this out,” said Agnarr as he held the corset up to the light of the fire, trying to decipher which was the front and which was the back. “Though it’s going to be very difficult if you don’t at least put on the chemise.”

Iduna smiled from their bedroll against the back wall of the cave. Underneath the furs she had stayed undressed, still warm from their earlier exertions and in no hurry to put her clothing back on. “I haven’t found it yet. Which pack is it in?” She raised herself on her elbow and let the furs fall away from her body. Agnarr gave a playful sigh and then tossed a large satchel onto the ground beside her. 

“In there. Along with the crinoline and dirndl. Though really, I promise. We can easily dance the waltz in your gakti. Or naked. Either suits me just fine.” He grinned at her and she laughed. The corset was still in his hands, but his eyes remained on her as she put the chemise over her head and then brought her arms through the sleeves. When her arms were through, he watched as she ran her fingers through her mussed hair, taming it a bit as she twisted it into a long spiral and then tucked it into a high bun. Her ring glinted in the light of the fire and his heart felt full to see it. The golden crocus and sun imprinted together on a golden band on her slender finger was proof that they had really made a plan for the future of their kingdoms and for themselves.

That was the first gift he had shown her upon arriving in the forest for this trip, one he had been anxious to give her since they were handfast. Agnarr hadn’t needed to lie about the Arendellian ring and dress he’d had made to Iduna’s measurements with Elias’s help to keep it discreet. His father hadn’t even asked about or looked at the items he had packed. He was used to Agnarr’s insistence on bringing books and toys the Northuldra children would enjoy. 

The ring had made her cry with happiness once he’d been able to present it to her in the privacy of their cave, this refuge they usually managed to escape to during his visits north. And the dress had made her laugh. She’d wanted to dance an Arendellian waltz after Agnarr had described the balls the castle was forever hosting. “I must not be describing it accurately,” he’d said. “It’s dreadfully boring.”

“Well you’ve never danced with me,” she’d said and he’d quickly agreed, putting his hand on her waist and placing hers on his shoulder, an approximation of proper dancing form.

“Any dance with you would be delightful. And you’re never boring.” He had leaned in for a kiss and she had met him eagerly, her hand around his neck as she pressed her body to his.

So now, in order to dance a waltz in their cave, he was helping her get dressed. He had taken out the corset first, but as it was as foreign to him as it was to her, they had not made much progress.

Iduna stood and walked to him, the muslin of her chemise brushing against his chest as she drew near. She took the garment and wrapped it around her middle, the hooks in front and the laces at her back. 

“This seems right. But you're on your own to fasten it for me; the cords are in the back.” 

Agnarr stood and wrapped his arms around her middle, running a hand down the row of hooks that she had clipped together and kissing the expanse of her neck that her swept-up hair had revealed. “Well it's not like I've seen them either, they are usually beneath about four layers of skirts worn by a woman I have no interest in seeing without them.”

Iduna laughed and then shivered pleasurably at his touch. “So you’re saying you’ve never been sufficiently motivated?”

Agnarr used his fingers to tighten and straighten the laces at her back and then tied them into a reef knot. He didn’t know if a sailor’s knot was correct but it would get the job done and there were still the crinolines to negotiate. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

He ran his hand down her spine, checking to see that the laces lay flat and comfortable against her skin. She pressed her hands against her sides and breathed deeply. “That feels good. I feel strong. Ready for dancing.”

“Next the crinoline. Then the dirndl,” he said as he pulled the underskirts out of the satchel, shaking them lightly to make them less rumpled. Iduna held onto his shoulders as he knelt with the waist of the crinoline open and she stepped into it. The press of her hands onto his bare shoulders made it hard to concentrate; his breath was as fast as if they had been twirling around already.

He stood once she was on two feet again and then pushed the edges of the fabric down from the ribbon that tied at her waist, setting it against the small of her back with another reef knot, this one accomplished more quickly. He wrapped his hands around her waist, spreading his palms out to feel the stiff corset underneath and to slowly guide her to turn toward him. Then he shook out the dirndl and helped her lower it over herself and adjust the lay of the skirt and the fastenings in the back.

He took a step back to admire her - the blues and purples on the dress were dark in the weak light cast by their fire and she looked more beautiful than anyone he’d ever seen at a palace ball. 

“I think we should take it off again. For practice,” she said. “Dancing can wait.” He closed the distance between them and brushed against her neck with his mustache, kissing her and then putting both of his hands around her waist. Even through all of these layers of fabric, the heat of her was pulling him in.

Iduna guided his hands to the front of her bodice. “You always have the best ideas,” he said, and then neither of them spoke for a while.

***

“Did you tell her yet?” Elias asked, once the door to the council chamber was locked and he and Agnarr were the only two remaining. Agnarr’s expression became closed off and he spoke with the same measured tones he’d used in the council meeting to discuss impersonal matters of state.

“I wish you wouldn’t start every conversation that way.”

“I wish you’d tell her so I wouldn’t have to. I could never keep a secret like this from Thea,” Elias said, shaking his head.

“You wouldn’t have to. No secret of hers would get her killed.”

“You’re going to regret it.” Agnarr took a step forward, but Elias raised his hand to stop him. “Use this. It might help you explain,” he said, reaching into his pocket and handing over a ring with a sun and crocus emblem. “I took it off of her that night. I didn’t destroy it like I did the rest of her clothing.”

Agnarr turned the ring over his palm, running his thumb over the engraved symbols. 

“Maybe it will spark a memory,” Elias said. “Either for her or for you – what promises you’ve already made to her and what you forfeit by not telling her about them.”

Agnarr looked down at the ring again and was startled when the door slammed shut, leaving him alone.

***

“You always wear this. Ever since our wedding day. What kind of ring is it?” Iduna asked, idly spinning the gold band on his pinky finger. They lay together in bed, his arm around her as she nestled against his side. She wondered if being in love was always like this - wanting to know everything about the one you loved, feeling like their body was yours and yours belonged to them. Feeling like two halves of a whole that only made sense when joined together. Or was that only because she was still missing so much of herself? If she knew who she was, if she was whole, would she mind that he kept so many secrets? That when she asked these questions, he rarely answered? 

He didn’t answer now either, but took it off and gave it to her. And instead of examining it closer or asking about the crocus and the sun that she had felt with her fingertips, she tried it on her pinky where it spun around, too large, and then slid it on her ring finger where it fit perfectly, stacked on top of the wedding ring that they had exchanged the previous week.

“Elias found it recently; I had thought it was lost,” he said. He took her hand and kissed it, right where the rings lay against each other on her hand. “It suits you. You should keep it.” 

But she wondered at the shaky breath he took as he said it.

***

They had spent all morning in bed but now they were needed in the Byrett, her first official duty as Queen. Agnarr explained that this trial was to bring justice to several murdered Northuldra who were killed by Arendellians seeking revenge. 

“I’m sorry you have to see this part of Arendelle,” he said, his head in his hands and his elbows on his knees, bent over like he was in pain. Iduna had sat down next to him and leaned her head against his bare shoulder.

“Pain and violence are not unique to Arendelle. At least justice is being sought now.” She pressed her open hand against his back, moving her palm in circles from his shoulders to where his trousers hung on his hips.

He leaned his head against hers and then shook himself slightly. “Let’s get you dressed.”

Arendellian clothing was still foreign to her and he was the only one who could make her comfortable in these strange-feeling clothes. She rolled on her stockings and he affixed the garters, his hands under her chemise and lightly on her thighs as he put them in their proper place. She stood and began the work of hooking the front of her corset and he sat behind her on the bed, expertly lacing and tying at the back, smoothing the garment and tugging it straight and then kissing her on the neck. 

She felt so relaxed and so safe, so at home with him here in their room. She closed her eyes. What he was doing felt so practiced and easy. 

"I can tell you've done this before,” she said. And then, with an impulse born out of curiosity, she asked “Did you love her?" 

His hands paused in their work and she felt his head rest against the small of her back. She turned her head and could see his head bent low as it pressed into her back, his shoulders hunched. 

"I've never loved anyone like I love you," he said, his words projecting to the ground and barely above a whisper, but still audible to her. His hands tightened around her waist and she wondered if she should apologize for asking her husband such a question, and she wondered what other kinds of love he might have had for other kinds of women. 

There was no awkwardness about him in their bed or in negotiating the layers of garments that queens wore. But there was an awkwardness here. A halting and stilted way he spoke and a door he was closing, even if he was doing it gently, when she asked about such things.

But what did it matter? They were married now and he was devoted. In love, it seemed. And she was falling in love with him more each day, learning as much about him as she did about herself.

“I love you too,” she said, and turned around to face him. His head was even with her stomach and she ran her fingers through his hair, brushing at it gently, noticing how young he looked with it pulled back from his face. His hands were around her waist, pulling her close, and she was startled to realize she was now comforting him.

Perhaps she was dead then, this mysterious woman he loved in a different way. It wasn’t something that should bother her; especially when she had no idea who she had loved or been loved by before her rescue and arrival in Arendelle. Perhaps it was why he was so patient, why he’d offered to abstain from a physical relationship until she was ready. And perhaps that was why they got on so well - they were both mourning, though neither could name their loss.

***

“She’s wearing the ring, Agnarr. Why is she wearing the ring?” Elias wasn’t even angry and that was somehow worse. He just seemed sad.

“She saw it and wanted to try it on. And of course I let her. She’s my wife.”

“She is,” Elias hissed, looking around to be sure no one else in the Byrett could hear them. “She is your wife. And you could help her heal by telling her who she is! Why can’t you do that?”

Agnarr thought about dressing her that morning, his hands gripping her waist and helping her tighten her corset. Was he drowning her, burying her beneath clothes that hid who she really was? He wasn’t only lying to her, he was creating an entire fiction about who she was. But as tortuous as it was, it could be worse. “Look at where we are. These men murdered Northuldra.” 

Elias opened his mouth again, but Agnarr shook his head. “Don’t speak of it. Not here.”

***

In the Royal Sommerhus, Elsa kept the air cool but Iduna’s fingers had still swollen in the summer heat. Her wedding rings were uncomfortably tight and Agnarr had a bottle of oil he was using to massage her hands, pulling and kneading, and eventually sliding the rings off, one at a time. 

“You could wear them for me, until I can wear them again,” she said, sighing as he continued the massage, going up her forearms and then to her shoulders, the warmth of the oil and the heat of his hands sending a pleasurable shiver down her spine. “I always thought it looked nice when you wore that one on your pinky finger.”

Agnarr put the wedding rings on his smallest fingers - one on the left and one on the right. 

“I’m sorry it took me so long to tell you. About what the ring meant.” 

She closed her eyes as his hands kept kneading at her and she smiled as she felt the baby kick. “It’s alright. I've never loved anyone like I love you.” 

The baby kicked again and Agnarr laughed. “We’ll love you too, little one. We have plenty of love for you too.”


End file.
